(This message comes via the Embassy, from a group looking for english language volunteers.)

I am writing to you from the English Volunteering Project at Volontärbyrån. I am a British expat who has lived in Sweden for a year, and am now working with Volontärbyrån on this project to help non-Swedish speakers find interesting and stimulating volunteering opportunities within non-profit organisations in Stockholm.

Volunteering with non-profit organisations is a great way to help people new in Sweden to feel useful and valued. It is also a good way to meet new people, learn Swedish and gain work experience in Sweden. I know all this from firsthand experience, but I also know many people who have struggled to find suitable volunteering opportunities.

Volontärbyrån is Sweden’s volunteering centre, with a local office in Stockholm, which has been supporting and encouraging volunteering throughout Sweden for 9 years. It is itself a non-profit organisation, and, until now its services have been offered only in Swedish. This has made it difficult for non-Swedish speakers to access the many volunteering opportunities it advertises through its website www.volontarbyran.org.

The English Volunteering Project aims to-
· Adapt Volontärbyrån’s existing services (matching volunteers with non-profit organisations) so that they can be accessed by anyone who can speak English.
· Work with and support Swedish non-profit organisations to make what volunteer opportunities they can accessible to non-Swedish speakers.
· Make English speakers aware of the value of volunteering, the volunteer opportunities that are available to them, and to encourage and support them to volunteer.

To get the project underway we need support from everyone involved with expats; embassies, companies, community groups, clubs and expats themselves. This support can take a number of forms –
· Financial. We need to raise funds to develop Volontärbyrån’s website, do the translations, develop suitable information and to pay for someone to network with non-profit organisations and manage and publicize the project. Can you help with this?
· Contacts and ideas.

o Do you have any ideas about how the project can raise the money it needs? For example, could you host a fundraising event, put us in touch with a foundation, pay part of a salary, or give us an introduction to a company who might be interested in supporting the project?

o Do you know of any non-profit organisations who would be interested in being involved with the project?

o Do you have contacts with Canadian community groups or clubs who can help us understand how we can support them to volunteer?